Nonsingular Cosmology from an Unstable Higgs Field

Abstract

The observed value of the Higgs mass indicates an instability of the Higgs scalar at large energy scales, and hence also at large field values. In the context of early universe cosmology, this is often considered to lead to problems. Here we point out that we can use the instability of the Higgs field to generate an Ekpyrotic phase of contraction. In the context of string theory it is possible that at very high energy densities extra states become massless, leading to an S-brane which leads to the transition between a contracting phase in the past and the current expanding phase. Thus, the Higgs field can be used to generate a non-singular bouncing cosmology in which the anisotropy problem of usual bouncing scenarios is mitigated.